Everything about Tapir totally explained
Tapirs (as in "taper", or /təˈpɪər/, as "ta-pier") are large
browsing mammals, roughly pig-like in shape, with short,
prehensile snouts. They inhabit jungle and forest regions of
South America,
Central America, and
Southeast Asia. All four
species of tapir are classified as
endangered or vulnerable. Their closest relatives are the other
odd-toed ungulates, including
horses and
rhinoceroses.
Species
There are four tapir species:
Hybrids
Hybrid tapirs from the Baird's Tapir and the Brazilian Tapir were bred at the
San Francisco Zoo around
1969 and produced a second generation around
1970.
General appearance
Size varies between types, but most tapirs are about 2 meters (7 ft) long, stand about a meter (3 ft) high at the shoulder, and weigh between 150 and 300 kg (330 to 700 lb). Coats are short and range in color from reddish-brown to grey to nearly black, with the notable exceptions of the
Malayan Tapir, which has a white saddle-shaped marking on its back, and the
Mountain Tapir, which has longer, woolly fur. All tapirs have oval, white-tipped ears, rounded, protruding rear ends with stubby tails, and splayed, hoofed toes, with four toes on the front feet and three on the hind feet, which help them walk on muddy and soft ground. Baby tapirs of all types have striped-and-spotted coats for
camouflage. Females have a single pair of mammary glands.
Physical characteristics
The
proboscis of the tapir is a highly flexible structure, able to move in all directions, allowing the animals to grab foliage that would otherwise be out of reach. Tapirs often exhibit the
flehmen response, a posture in which they raise their snouts and show their teeth, in order to detect scents. This response is frequently exhibited by bulls sniffing for signs of other males or females in
oestrus in the area. Proboscis length varies among species; Malayan Tapirs have the longest snouts and Brazilian Tapirs have the shortest. The evolution of tapir probosces, made up almost entirely of soft tissues rather than bony internal structures, gives the
Tapiridae skull a unique form in comparison to other
perissodactyls, with a larger
sagittal crest, orbits positioned more rostrally, a posteriorly telescoped
cranium, and a more elongated and retracted nasoincisive incisure.
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Tapirs have brachyodont, or low-crowned, teeth that lack cement. Their
dental formula is totaling 42 to 44 teeth; this
dentition is closer to that of equids, who may differ by one less canine, than their other perissodactyl relatives, rhinoceroses. Their incisors are chisel-shaped, with the third large, conical upper incisor separated by a short gap from the considerably smaller canine. A much longer gap is found between the canines and premolars, the first of which may be absent. Tapirs are lophodonts, and their cheek teeth have distinct lophs (ridges) between protocones, paracones, metacones and hypocones.
Tapirs have brown eyes, often with a bluish cast to them which has been identified as
corneal cloudiness, a condition most commonly found in Malayan Tapirs. The exact etiology is unknown, but the cloudiness may be caused by excessive exposure to light or by trauma. However, the tapir's sensitive ears and strong sense of smell help to compensate for deficiencies in vision.
Lifecycle
Young tapirs reach sexual maturity between three and five years of age, with females maturing earlier. Under good conditions, a healthy female tapir can reproduce every two years; a single youngster is born after a gestation of about 13 months. The natural lifespan of a tapir is approximately 25 to 30 years, both in the wild and in zoos. Apart from mothers and their young offspring, tapirs lead almost exclusively solitary lives.
Behavior
Although they frequently live in dryland forests, tapirs with access to rivers spend a good deal of time in and under the water, feeding on soft vegetation, taking refuge from
predators, and cooling off during hot periods. Tapirs near a water source will swim, sink to the bottom and walk along the riverbed to feed, and have been known to submerge themselves under water to allow small fish to pick parasites off their bulky bodies. Along with fresh water lounging, tapirs often wallow in mud pits, which also helps to keep them cool and free of insects.
In the wild, the tapir’s diet consists of
fruit,
berries, and
leaves, particularly young, tender growth. Tapirs will spend many of their waking hours foraging along well-worn trails, snouts to the ground in search of food. Baird’s Tapirs have been observed to eat around 40 kilograms (85 pounds) of vegetation in one day.
Tapirs are largely
nocturnal and
crepuscular, although the smaller Mountain Tapir of the
Andes is generally more active
during the day than its
congeners. They have monocular vision.
Copulation may occur in or out of water, and in captivity, mating pairs will often copulate multiple times during oestrus.
Habitat, predation, and vulnerability
Adult tapirs are large enough that they've few natural predators, and the thick skin on the backs of their necks helps to protect them from threats such as
jaguars,
crocodiles,
anacondas, and
tigers. The creatures are also able to run fairly quickly, considering their size and cumbersome appearance, finding shelter in the thick undergrowth of the forest or in water. Hunting for meat and hides has substantially reduced their numbers and, more recently, massive habitat loss has resulted in the conservation watch-listing of all four species: both the Brazilian Tapir and the Malayan Tapir are classified as vulnerable; and the Baird’s Tapir and the Mountain Tapir are endangered. Tapirs tend to prefer
old growth forests and the food sources that can be found in them, making the preservation of primary woodlands a top priority for tapir conservationists.
Evolution and Natural History
The first tapirids, such as
Heptodon, appeared in the early
Eocene. They appeared very similar to modern forms, but were about half the size, and lack the proboscis. The first true tapirs, appeared in the
Oligocene, and by the
Miocene, such genera as
Miotapirus were almost indistinguishable to the extant species. It is believed that Asian and American tapirs diverged around 20 to 30 million years ago, and that tapir varieties moved from North America to Central and South America around 3 million years ago. For much of their history, tapirs were spread across the northern hemisphere, where they became extinct as recently as 10,000 years ago.
It is also believed by some scientists that the tapir may have evolved from the
Hyracotherium (primitive horse).
Genetics
The four species of tapir have the following
chromosomal numbers:
